Last Monday Mondoville suggested that the search for a digital media future amounted essentially to "all talk and no action" if I’m paraphrasing correctly. Unfortunately comments were closed so I’m going to comment on that post here. As I’m currently working with the Canadian Digital Media Network to establish an interactive community, this part especially caught my eye:

Canadian Digital Media Network, a federal government-backed effort with hubs in Kitchener and Stratford was evoked as a future model for Toronto, but it looks all too clinical — seemingly indifferent toward the business and marketing types who connect these ideas to the public. Who else is going to pay for the services of the designers and technologists? Well, stick with academia, and this intellectual exercise can go on forever: Canada 3.0, the Waterloo Stratford Institute’s annual conference scheduled for May 2010, promises to make this country a world leader in digital media — if not, there’s always the year after that!

Now it may come as a surprise to many, but I agree completely with that assessment.

No government effort, federal, provincial, or municipal, will ever create a sustainable industry. Period.

The Canadian Digital Media Network, or CDMN, does look all to clinical and politically correct, as any government-affiliated organization pretty much has to look. This is not going to be a controversial organization; that doesn’t make for good press.

CDMN is intended to be an enabling organization, helping others to create and/or grow digital media hubs. And every enabler starts with a grand, sweeping visionary statement, liking making Canada a world leader in digital media. This galvanizes politicians, industry, and people like you and I into actually doing something about it. Or maybe thinking that if there is somebody there to help then we can get something done quicker than we thought we could.

I suppose President John F. Kennedy had the same idea when he said that America would put a man on the moon within a decade. Great dreams with appropriate motivation behind them tend to make great things happen.

The Stratford Institute is one of those hubs, but is also an acacemic institution. It runs the Canada 3.0 Conference to bring together its constituent parties. Both the CDMN and the Stratford Institute, to their credit, recognized that they might not be reaching the entire digital media landscape. From that realization came the suggestion of DigitalMediaCamp.

DigitalMediaCamp is the grassroots face of the CDMN effort.It is open to everyone, shares with everyone, learns from everyone, and builds upon those thoughts while gathering them and allowing free comment on them. DigitalMediaCamp can be controversial, and occasionally should be. All comments about DigitalMediaCamp – uncensored in any way – are visible on the main page of the site. All of the content from DigitalMediaCamp is available on the wiki.

DigitalMediaCamp is already leading groups to galvanize around the issue, to take action, and to stand up and be counted.

Mondoville is correct. No government initiative could ever accomplish this. But sometimes a simple idea can push people beyond the tipping point into tomorrow.

When we started planning the DigitalMediaCamp events, in the back of my mind I had the nagging feeling that this would be just another camp-style event. I knew it would be an interesting event, but an unremarkable one. Coincidentally, a good friend of mine says the meaning of “interesting” is never a good one.

We also wanted to attract a different audience than the usual tech folks who attend events such as StartupCamp. We wanted to incite not only tech people, but content creators and designers – the people who create the actual digital media. We started with a simple question:

How can we work together to make Toronto a globally competitive hub of digital media entrepreneurship and innovation?

Yesterday was the day. DigitalMediaCamp Toronto at OCAD in Toronto. With about 80 people in attendance we didn’t just meet; we engaged with each other. If the day had been 48 hours long I don’t think that we would have had enough time for everyone to say everything they wanted to say.

I was wrong. It was a remarkable event. And I’m comfortable saying that it shattered everyone’s expectations. But don’t take my word for it. Follow the #dmcamp hashtag on Twitter.Or check out these posts:

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/digitalmediacamp-toronto
http://bradfortner.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/will-torontos-digitalmediacamp-help-better-focus-the-understanding-of-the-citys-digital-media-industry/
http://citadelrock.com/www/blogpost4-Reflections-on-Digital-Media-Camp
http://beta.innovatetoronto.ca/?p=281

With 40 different conversations spread across 4 topic areas (check them out on the wiki) there just wasn’t enough time to discuss all that we wanted to discuss. I found myself moving from group to group, just to partake of some of the passionate discussions, and to add my two cents worth occasionally. Personalities contributed, clashed, and entertained. Several groups spawned projects from the conversations and planned to meet again, especially the #t4change group. And people who are usually more reserved (you know who you are) found their voices.

Even given a very long day on a Saturday, the energy was palpable all day long, likely spurred on by great food and coffee, and excellent work by Mark Kuznicki. I don’t make it to Toronto all that often – that 401 drive is a deterrent – but I’m certainly glad this was the day.

It was great to meet everyone and I look forward to chatting with all of you both virtually and live as we figure out how to answer that question. It’s going to take me a few days just to work through all of the ideas we generated in that one short day. Thanks to everyone who joined us on Saturday!

Join us for DigitalMediaCamp Toronto on Saturday, December 12th. Save the date and register at the link below.

DigitalMediaCamp Toronto
Saturday, December 12th
9:30 to 4:30
OCAD Auditorium
100 McCaul Street
Toronto, ON

Register: http://guestlistapp.com/events/8148

You will join other emerging leaders in Toronto’s digital media community in an intense and interactive set of conversations around this central question:

How can we work together to propel Toronto’s technology, content and design communities into the future and make Toronto a globally competitive hub of digital media entrepreneurship and innovation?

The day is structured as an unconference. The participants create the content of the day. There is no pre-set agenda. Your ideas, your needs and your voice will have the platform and the content of our conversations will be shared online in real-time and will be used beyond the day of the event in a number of forums, including at the Canada 3.0 2010 conference which will take place May 10-11, 2010.

This is the first of a series of DigitalMediaCamp events to be held across Canada, hosted by the Canadian Digital Media Network, and designed to help shape the agenda for Canada 3.0 2010. The series is intended to engage emerging leaders and the talented and passionate creators in Canada’s digital media industry, to identify great ideas and new voices and to spur creativity in Canada’s digital economy.

For more information about the Canadian Digital Media Network, visit www.cdmn.ca and see what’s in store for Canada 3.0 2010 at www.canada30.ca.

Welcome to DigitalMediaCamp!

DigitalMediaCamp is all about bringing together people with a shared interest in digital media for a spirited, open discussion. We want to understand what you consider digital media to be, and what issues you see that impact the growth of digital media technology and the companies that either create it or enable it to be created.

Select a city to the left to find out how you can attend a DigitalMediaCamp in your area.